This charming double album pays tribute to a very French institution - the Paris Instrumental Quintet, renamed following World War Two after harpist Pierre Jamet. All the works on the second disc were written for, or commissioned by, the Quintet, and recorded soon after their premières, so that this release is an important historical document as well as a very civilised listening experience. And sooo French!

Artists

Pierre Jamet (harp), Gaston Crunelle (flute), Gaston Crunelle (flute) & Georges Blanpain (viola), Étienne Ginot (viola), Marcel Frecheville (cello), Louis Beydts (narrator) & René Bas (violin), René Leroy (flute), René Bas (violin), Pierre Grout (viola) & Roger Boulmé (cello), Georges Blanpain (viola) & Robert Krabansky (cello)

Chamber Music Society Orchestra, Soloists of French Radio, Gustave Cloëz, Pierre Capdevielle